European Voice: French government survives no-confidence vote

18 September 2014

Prime Minister Valls wins no-confidence vote. EV argues this may deepen divisions within the French ruling Socialist Party.

France’s Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Tuesday (16 September) narrowly won the support of the Assemblée nationale for his new cabinet in a vote that averted a political crisis but could deepen divisions within the ruling Socialist Party.


The government, which needed a simple majority, won the backing of 269 of 577 parliamentarians. In all, 244 voted against, but it was the number of left-wingers who abstained that most clearly laid bare the divisions created by Valls’ attempt to position himself as a reformer opposed to the ‘old left’. Of the 289 members of left-wing parties, 31 abstained.

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